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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Heard of Vijaya, Milma, Nandini…………………. ~ and Aavin !!!! 4 or 5 decades ago,
mornings started with mad scramble for milk – to start the day with a cup of
degree coffee…. From cows and buffaloes milk, there was a paradigm shift in the
City of Chennai aka Madras to pasteurized milk. Prior to that the
localities depended entirely on the neighbourhood cowherds for milk. The
milkman would come in front of the house, have a customary check of the utensil
before they touch the udder and milch
the cattle in your presence – still people used to complain of the milk being
very much watery.

flavoured milk of Vijaya in a shop

It was a difficult
process as those were the days when people were not accustomed to
refrigerators. The milk van would come
early in the morning, the attendant at the booth would unload and nap for a few
more minutes. Around 0500 am, there would a big queue lined before each booth.
Each had to carry either the empty bottle as replacement for the milk in bottle
or carry a utensil, into which the milk from the bottle would be poured. After very many years, there was the cover
milk replacing the bottles………. It was
common to see people loitering on roads and cursing everyone on days, when the
carrying van had a breakdown or delay due to any other reason.

Courtesy : http://memeart.tripod.com/Cows.html

Milk was scarce and
not easily available. Procuring a monthly Aavin card was not so easy;
procedurally very cumbersome; more so, when one had to buy bulk quantity for
marriages and the like. Those were the
days when there were hundreds of cows and ten times their no. of buffaloes in
Triplicane with a similar story in all other localities of the city of Singara Chennai.

Aavin is the trademark
of the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation Limited, a Tamil
Nadu-based milk producer's union. Aavin
comes from Tamil meaning 'from cow'. So 'Aavin paal' translates to cow's milk. Aavin procures milk, process it and sells it
in retail across Tamilnadu; similarly it is brand Vijaya in Andhra; Milma in Kerala
and Nandini in Karnataka. The Dairy Development
Department was established in Tamil Nadu in the year 1958; was replaced by the
Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited in the year 1981. Even with so many private players in the
field, Aavin is still at the top with a very high base % of consumers.

Now most Office goers
buy their required quantity mostly in the morning, keep them in the fridge for
use across the day. For buying the
monthly cards, they have to buy it at the local counter on a designated day,
mostly in the first week of every month, failing which they have to go to the
Zonal Office. At present, Aavin supplies
nearly 11 lakh litres of milk in the city. There are about 12 lakh milk cards
catering to nearly 5 lakh families in Chennai, according to sources in Aavin.

The good news is that
from December 1, consumers of Aavin need
not wait in queues any more to renew their milk cards every month. The Hindu reports that in its bid to reach
out to consumers, the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Co-operative Federation Limited
(Aavin) launched the facility to renew monthly milk cards online. Consumers can
register their details, including address and milk depot number, at
www.aavinmilk.com. They will be provided with a unique registration number that
will enable them to renew their monthly milk cards using credit or debit cards.

The facility was
recently launched in Chennai by the Milk and dairy development minister V.
Moorthy. Consumers can collect the new
milk cards at the respective depot or milk delivery points on the 15th of every
month by producing a printout of the payment receipt and a document for address
proof.

At a time, when most
give discounts for transacting only, Aavin is different. It is stated that those opting for the online renewal would be levied
a service charge of Rs. 10 up to one litre, Rs. 20 up to two litres and Rs. 30
up to three litres. Aavin has tied up with City Union Bank to offer the
facility, which aims at preventing sale of milk at a higher rate.

As part of its
efforts to eliminate bogus cards, Aavin is also planning to introduce smart
cards for those who have registered online. This facility will be launched in
Anna Nagar as a pilot project and later extended to other parts of the city.
These smart cards will contain basic details of the card holder such as name,
number of family members and milk consumption.

At some point of
time, Aavin promoted ‘automated vending machines’ where one has to insert a
token to get milk from the machine. It has disappeared in most places where it
was previously installed.

It is unlikely that you know the price of the milk
that you buy …………. From Sept 2011, the
price of toned milk [the blue cover that you buy] 1 litre is Rs.24/- for monthly card holders
and the MRP is Rs.27/- for halt litre it
is Rs.12/- & Rs.15.50 respectively;
in respect of Standardised milk [green cover] which is 4.5 milk i.e., containing fat @ 4.5% - the
price is Rs.14.50/- per 500 ml.